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5 month old not eating as often

Hello,

I'm not sure if I should be concerned or not. My five almost six month old is not eating as often as she used to. I have noticed a change in my breastmilk, there is more "cream" on top when it settles while I have it stored in the fridge. At day care they are only giving her two 4 oz bottles during an 8 hour day, she was eating three 4 oz bottles during the same time frame.

She will usually eat around 6 or 7 in the morning before I drop her off, then I have left strict instruction with the daycare not to feed her until she gets hungry. (They were feeding her to pacify her and she was eating too much, I couldn't keep up with what they were feeding her). On the time log it shows that she is not eating until 11 or noon and then again until 3 or 4. She had put herself on a schedule of eating around 6/7 am, 9:30/10 am, noon/12:30, 3:30/4, I would get her around 6 and nurse her for the rest of the evening which is usually 6/6:30 and then again at 8:30 when she goes to bed. She will usually wake up twice a night, once around midnight or one and then again around 3:30/4:00am. Her output continues to be good, she is having good wet/dirty diapers. Around 7 wet diapers a day and around 1 dirty diaper a day.

Should I be concerned that she is only eating around 8 oz in an 8 hour time frame?

On a side note, she was very interested in food. So my husband and I bought some oatmeal cereal and give her that before I nurse her for bed. She has only had that twice, Sunday and Monday evening (I mixed 1 Tablespoon of cereal with 2 oz of breastmilk, I fed that to her with a spoon I didn't give her a bottle with it mixed in). She has not had cereal since Monday night and those nights she only ate about an ounce.

Any education or experience you can throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!!!

Re: 5 month old not eating as often

Are you concerned about how often your baby is nursing, or how much baby is getting at day care? It sounds as if baby nurses ~5 times a day? Am I getting that right?

The AAP recommendation is solids start ideally at 6 months and not before, but at LLL we have always suggested to start when baby shows signs of readiness "around the middle of the first year." So we are a bit looser on this. ON the other hand, a baby might be interested in sitting with you while you eat and playing with a spoon to mimic you and not REALLY completely ready for solids yet. If you notice any issues with digestion, fine to back off on solds and try again in a few weeks.

Whenever you start solids, take it slow as you are doing, offering once a day or less at first, and I would also suggest, nurse before offering solid foods if you are concerned baby is not nursing enough. (Of course , you can nurse before AND after.) Your milk is way more nutritious than cereal or anything else baby would be eating these days, so you want to be careful as you go forward, that baby is not filling up on solids. Breastmilk should ideally be baby's primary food source for many many months to come. This article has more info: http://www.llli.org/faq/solids.html

Re: 5 month old not eating as often

Thank you so much! Yes, I guess it was just odd to me that she is not eating as much as she did before while she was at daycare. Yes she still nurses about the same amount but it's the bottles she eats while I'm at work. Those have decreased greatly and the time span in between. Wednesday morning I nursed her at 6:30 and she didn't eat her first bottle at daycare until noon. She doesn't really nap for hours anymore either, it's more like cat naps here and there. A five hour time span in between feedings during the day is just odd for her, the longest she's gone before has been 3 1/2 hours. I guess that's part of my question as well, is it normal for them at this age (she is one week from being 6 months old) to go longer amounts of time in between feedings during the day?

As I mentioned it has been a struggle at her daycare to get feedings in properly. I love the place and they are so good with her in every other aspect it really is worth me trying to work with them on her feedings. That's what I mainly concerned with, if this is something that needs to be addressed or not.

Thanks for the advice about solids. I knew to start slow (we are going very slow, ha), I just wasn't sure if eating that small of amount could have been affecting her appetite during the day? As I mentioned earlier, she nurse's ok, it's the bottles she consumes at daycare and the decrease there that has me wondering if I should be worried or not. ha I guess you can tell I'm a first time mom for sure. Thanks again!

Re: 5 month old not eating as often

I agree with still.here. I would wonder more about baby being fed only twice the whole day, but the only thing i would suggest is maybe the caregivers are missing hunger cues, or possibly giving baby a larger bottle than baby really needs, but it may be no issue at all assuming baby is nursed on cue when with you, and either nursing or getting a bottle feeding approximately 8 total times per 24 hour day minimum.